July 18th: Devarim
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Everyone reads the Bible with a lens—seeing some things clearly and seeing other things less so. Those of us who are not very militaristic often tend to skip over the rah-rah military stuff: it rankles our sensibilities. A perfect example is Psalm 137. The first two stanzas mourn our exile in Babylonia and yearn for Jerusalem.
“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat,
Sat and wept, as we thought of Zion.
There on the poplars we hung up our lyres,
For our captors asked us there for songs,
Our tormentors, for amusement:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
How can we sing a song of the Lord on alien soil?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither,
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
If I cease to think of you,
If I do not keep Jerusalem in mind even at my happiest hour.”
These are the stanzas that are often quoted—and included in wall hangings and jewelry.
However, the third stanza lets loose our anger at the Babylonians.
“Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall:
How they cried, ‘Strip her, strip her to her very foundations!’
Fair Babylon, you predator, a blessing on him
Who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us;
A blessing on him who seizes your babies and dashes them against the rocks!”
This sounds awfully hostile. Awfully violent. And yet we who sit in our comfortable homes may never have been traumatized by the multitude of horrors that the Psalmist beheld when Jerusalem fell—and many, many, many were slaughtered. The phrase The Destruction of the First Temple and Jerusalem in 586 BCE is simple, but it summarizes horror upon horror that the writer and readers of this Psalm knew.
So, when the first few chapters of Deuteronomy (our Torah portion this week) recount our conquests over the Amorites, led by King Sihon King of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan, the victory story should be read with the clear understanding that losing these wars would not have gone well for the ancient Israelites. It was a very hostile area—and Deuteronomy’s second chapter recounts a series of conquests in which the “ownership” of territories changed hands often. Of course, the Torah’s view is that the real owner of all land is God. God grants land to various groups and then “ungrants” it when they misbehave. People are allowed to dwell on God’s land conditionally.
Meanwhile, beneath the theology of God defeating Og and Sihon and other enemies is the reality that Israelite men had to gird their loins, take up their swords, spears, and shields, and fight desperately in life-or-death conflicts. The cost of freedom and following God’s commandments was often paid with strife and blood and terrible sacrifice. We who have been spared the horrors of killing or being killed should not ignore this reality.
And so I come to a modern text, one that pairs with these opening chapters of Deuteronomy. Called It is the Soldier, the poem was written by Charles M. Province, an army veteran and military historian.
It is the Soldier ©Copyright by Charles M. Province
It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is The Soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us Freedom of the press.
It is The Soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us Freedom of speech.
It is The Soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us Freedom to demonstrate.
It is The Soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician,
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is The Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag and
Whose coffin is draped by the flag
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
Next week, we have The Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5.6-18) and The Shema and Ve’ahavta (Deuteronomy 6.4-9), which means that the militarism of chapters 1-3 makes the profundity and holiness possible.
We pray for peace, but we need to be ready for conflict. As the Psalmist (29.13) prayerfully describes the process:
“Adonai oz l’amo yiten. Adonai yivarech et amo va’shalom.
May the Lord give strength to our people; May the Lord bless our people with peace.”